Mothers are tuned into a variety of social media, but Facebook is chief among them, details Nielsen in a May 2012 blog post. In fact, almost 3 in 4 mothers (27.9 million) who went online from a home computer in March visited Facebook, while roughly one-quarter visited Blogger, making them 27% more likely than the US average to visit the blogging platform. Yet despite their preference for Facebook, many Millennial mothers (born between 1977 and 1994) have a love/hate relationship with the social network, according to May 2012 survey results from Meredith’s Parents Network. For example, on the one hand, 57% of this group feel that it is a waste of their time, while on the other hand, 89% describe their time with the site as “me time.” And while the Nielsen findings indicate that mothers are 38% more likely to become a fan or follow a brand online, 55% of Millennial mothers say they have de-friended companies on Facebook, citing too many messages and ads as their main reason.
Moms Avid Online Shoppers
Data from the Nielsen blog post indicate that mothers over-index in online shopping for some key categories: they are 35% more likely to have shopped for clothes; 50% more likely to have bought toys; 29% more likely to have purchased music; and 23% more likely to have bought e-books online within the past 30 days.
Becoming a mother also affects purchase decisions for women, says Mintel in May 2012 survey results, with mothers putting an increased emphasis on the safety, value, and nutrition of their common purchases. For example, 56% of mothers who only have children younger than 6 want things to be more durable, while 51% say they question how safe things are for their children. And 46% of mothers with younger kids say a low price has become more important.
Millennial Moms Love Their Smartphones
Data from the Meredith Parents Network survey, “Moms & Media 2,” indicates that a significant proportion of Millennial mothers use their phone from the bathroom (21%) to the bedroom (12%). This compares with results from a Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) survey also released in May, which found that a majority of Americans take calls while using the bathroom, although only 6% take calls or texts during sex.
Other Findings:
- Data from Nielsen reveals that Pinterest is the top family and lifestyle site for mothers, with 4.9 million visiting the site in March 2012 from a home computer. In fact, mothers are 61% more likely to visit Pinterest than the average American.
- About 1 in 3 bloggers are mothers, and 52% of bloggers are parents with children under 18 years of age in their household.
- According to the Meredith survey, Millennial mothers have an average of 13 applications on their smartphones. Two-thirds say that less than half of their apps are for their kids.
- 38% of Millennial mothers said status updates with too much personal information is their top Facebook pet peeve. 22% think that their friends make too many political statements.
- Millennial mothers have an average of 209 Facebook friends, up from 151 a year ago.
- These young mothers spend an average of 16 hours watching TV on a weekly basis. The proportion watching live TV has dropped to 41% from 55% in late 2010, while the proportion streaming has risen from 16% to 23% in that timeframe.
- 84% of Millennial mothers avoid commercials when watching live TV.
- According to the MMA survey results, close to 1 in 5 mobile users text their spouse or children more often than speaking to them face-to-face.
- 1 in 4 mobile users admit they could be addicted to their device, rising to 34% among those under 30.
- 48% of mobile users never turn their phones off, and 64% sleep with their device in the bed or by their bedside.
About the Data: The Meredith Parents Network data is based on an a survey conducted online by Zeldis Research Associates using a nationally representative sample of moms with children aged 0-12. Fieldwork was conducted from November 18-December 14, 2011 and resulted in 1,041 completed questionnaires. The MMA results are based on a survey of 310 American mobile users.
